I was looking for a CE 4.2 .net tablet that I could use as a big-screen GPS navigator as well as a big-screen Web tablet, video viewer, and all-around toy for trying out newer Pocket PC and .NET stuff. My old skeye.pad stopped working some time ago and sits in pieces in my room. Even when it was working, I struggled with it, having trouble even trying to sync with my PC.
I thought I had found a replacement when I stumbled upon a Siemens SIMpad SL4 on eBay a couple of weeks ago with the Mullenger CE 4.2 .net upgrade, for a mere $107. It came about a week ago, and I went right to work. Installed Ostia 7 on it and plugged in my Pharos GPS, and it established a fix quickly. Some nice Pocket PC apps showed up in full screen, including a pretty cool-looking freeware game called Distant Galaxies. I even tried Webby Mobile on it after installing .NET CF 2.0, and that browser looks like a nice alternative to IE CE 6.
(Interesting feature I noted while using both browsers: both redirected automatically to viewing the sites through Skweezer. Of course, I could disable that with a single tap to see the normal rendering of the pages.
)
It does have its downsides. Biggest one: only one card slot. To have room for GPS maps, and to use a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse with apps running from the CF card, I'd have to find out if I could get a serial-to-Bluetooth adapter to work.
I never got the chance. Earlier tonight, someone broke into my car and stole it.
First CE device I've ever had stolen from me.
(An old Compaq Aero 2180 running Pocket PC 2000, as well as my cell phone, went with it.
) So now I'm feeling an H/PC void in my life. Snatched away from me before the initial excitement even had a chance to wear off. And I'm now struggling with how to fill the void. I doubt I'm going to find another SL4 with CE 4.2 .net on it for that price, and anyway, the lack of a second card slot may have proved too much of a handicap for what I wanted to do with it. And a reflective screen would be nice - but are there any CE 4.2 .net tablets with reflective screens?
This isn't looking like a very good week for me thus far. . . .